COVID-19 updates: Classes in Chicago canceled for 4th day
Chicago Public Schools has been in talks with teachers over COVID-19 safety.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 837,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 62.5% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tests positive for COVID-19
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has tested positive for COVID-19 and "is experiencing symptoms," her office said in a statement Sunday.
She is recovering at home.
Ocasio-Cortez is fully vaccinated and received a booster shot in the fall, her office said, adding that the congresswoman encourages everyone to get boosted and follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Abbott Labs to provide 350,000 COVID tests to Chicago schools amid union impasse, governor says
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker announced that Abbott Labs will provide Chicago public schools 350,000 COVID-19 tests amid the omicron surge and the impasse between the teacher's unions and the school district to return to classrooms.
"I am committed to seeing our kids and teachers safely in classrooms ASAP. I want to thank the CEO of Abbott, Robert Ford, who was committed to helping get kids back to school by providing rapid antigen tests, along with the team at SHIELD Illinois," Pritzker said in a statement Saturday.
"Together, they turned over every stone ... I appreciate their hard work, along with that of my staff who worked nonstop behind the scene to get this done," he said.
Chicago Public Schools canceled classes last week amid negotiations over remote learning and COVID-19 safety measures.
City leadership, including Mayor Lori Lightfoot, had asked teachers to continue in-classroom instruction, but 88% of the Chicago Teachers Union's leadership and 73% of its members voted last week in favor of remote education.
New York orders 40 hospitals to halt elective surgeries
The state of New York has told 40 hospitals they must turn away nonessential, nonurgent elective surgeries for the next two weeks in response to low bed capacity. Most of the hospitals are located in upstate New York.
The determination was made after the hospital locations were added to the list of "high risk regions" by the state department of health due to 90% of beds being occupied according to the seven-day average.
"We will use every available tool to help ensure that hospitals can manage the COVID-19 winter surge," acting State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said in a statement Saturday. "I want to remind New Yorkers that getting vaccinated and boosted remain the best way to protect against serious illness and hospitalization from COVID-19. Vaccination also protects our hospital system. We cannot return to the early months of the pandemic when hospitals were overwhelmed."
All of the hospitals in three regions -- Mohawk Valley, Finger Lakes and Central New York -- are included in those 40 facilities.
New York state reports 90,132 cases
New York state recorded 90,132 COVID-19 cases and 154 deaths on Friday.
11,843 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized in the state. Of the hospitalized, 42% are cases where COVID was not included as one of the reasons for admission, the governor's office said.
"There is an answer to this winter surge and it's simple: the vaccine and the booster," Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. "Our vaccination rate among children is still too low. Parents and guardians don't delay in getting your children vaccinated and boosted, if eligible."
As of Friday, data showed the omicron variant represented 94% of sequences uploaded by New York State between Dec. 24 and Jan. 6, according to the governor's office.
CDC director responds to criticism of COVID-19 guidance
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is standing by her agency's new quarantine and isolation guidance for COVID-19, which the nation’s largest association of physicians has criticized as "confusing."
The CDC updated its guidelines on Dec. 27, saying asymptomatic people who test positive for COVID-19 should self-isolate for five days rather than 10. In a scathing statement released Wednesday night, the American Medical Association (AMA) said the new recommendations "are risking further spread of the virus."
"The American people should be able to count on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for timely, accurate, clear guidance to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their communities. Instead, the new recommendations on quarantine and isolation are not only confusing, but are risking further spread of the virus," the AMA's president, Dr. Gerald E. Harmon, said in the statement. "With hundreds of thousands of new cases daily and more than a million positive reported cases on January 3, tens of thousands -- potentially hundreds of thousands of people -- could return to work and school infectious if they follow the CDC’s new guidance on ending isolation after five days without a negative test."
But Walensky defended the new guidance, telling ABC News' Cecelia Vega in an interview Friday on "Good Morning America" that the CDC "make[s] these recommendations in the context of science, in the context of ongoing epidemiology and in the context of what is feasible in collaboration with our public health and local and state public health partners."
"I've read the AMA statement and I have deep respect for the AMA," Walenskey said, "but I will also say we've heard a lot of support for ongoing guidance from public health partners, from other clinical and laboratory partners as well."
Walensky referenced "dozens of studies" that have shown a COVID-19 patient is most infectious in the one to two days before symptoms and the two to three days after symptoms.
"So by five days after your symptoms, the vast majority of your contagiousness is really behind you," she said. "And what we say at day five then is, are your symptoms gone? Are you feeling better? Is your cough gone, sore throat gone? And if so, then it is safe to go out if you are wearing a mask all the time. And that means not going out to restaurants, not going out to gyms, not going out and visiting grandma, but really conscientiously wearing your mask for those last five days."
Walensky noted that people may choose to take an antigen or at-home test at day five, if they have access to one. But it's not required.
"If that test is positive, you should stay home for those extra five days. But if that test is negative you should go out and continue to wear your mask," she said. "You know, these tests are actually not authorized for the purpose of evaluating contagiousness."